+0.27(+0.44%)

-5.90(-0.44%)

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-0.01(-0.71%)

Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades: BMO Capital made two calls on August 26, 2014 in the mall REIT space, upgrading Macerich (NYSE: MAC) from Market Perform to Outperform; and downgrading REIT industry giant Simon Properties Group (NYSE: SPG) from Market Perform to Outperform.

Here is a glance at how they have performed year-to-date vs. industry peers and the S&P 500:

Industry leading General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) is paying out one of the sectors lowest yielding dividends -- currently yielding only ~2.6 percent. Based its higher yield and poorer performance YTD, Macerich looks like it have some room to run based upon valuation.

As reported on Benzinga, Mizuho initiated coverage of the apartment REIT sector on August 25, 2014. Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE: MAA) and Camden Property Trust (NYSE: CPT) with its Buy rating; while Home Properties (NYSE: HME) and UDR Inc. (NYSE: UDR) were started at a Neutral rating.

Recently, Benzinga reported that the UBS O'Connor LLC hedge fund unit had sold off most of its REIT shares -- including a large stake in Mid-America Apts. -- to lock in the gains resulting from the run-up in share prices YTD. The largest sales UBS hedge fund sales by dollar volume were in the apartment REIT sector.REITs in the News:

mizuho_initiates_apt_reits.jpg

Global industrial real estate giant Prologis (NYSE: PLD) recently reported a related party $448 million USD sale of five Class-A properties from its wholly owned Japanese portfolio to Nippon Prologis REIT. NPR is externally managed by a wholly owned subsidiary of Prologis.

After the bell on Monday, August 25, 2014 small-cap shopping center real estate trust Whitestone REIT (NYSE: WSR) declared a $0.285 quarterly dividend to be paid to common shareholders, which are payable monthly in three installments of $0.095 per common share and OP unit. Whitestone is currently the second highest yielding REIT in the shopping center sector with the current dividend yielding ~7.56 percent.

Notable Real Estate News:

On August 26, 2014, Ocwen Financial related entity Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ: ASPS) completed a previously announced restructuring which gives it more flexibility with regard to future stock buy-backs. The Ocwen entities have been under investigation by the New York Department of Financial Services regarding related party transactions.

Winter has officially come for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, and it is epic. Germany’s figure skater Paul Fentz came blazing onto the ice suited up for battle as thunderous music from Game of Thrones played, thrilling the internet to no end.

Last year, Boeing (NYSE: BA) strained its relationship with U.S. airline giant Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) by attempting to have big tariffs imposed on Delta's purchase of CSeries jets from Bombardier. Many pundits saw Boeing's trade complaint as a risky move that could alienate a key customer -- especially after Delta ordered the Airbus (NASDAQOTH: EADSY) A321neo last December instead of Boeing's 737 MAX 10. Delta isn't going to make bad business decisions just to punish Boeing.

One of the overarching questions about Russia’s online campaign to destabilize the US election is just how effective those social media efforts really were. Well, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment (pdf) of 13 Russian citizens and three entities, Russian trolls were persuasive enough to get at least one US citizen to stand up and wish their boss a very special happy birthday. The indictment says they used a social media account to arrange “for a real US person to stand in front of the White House…under false pretenses to hold a sign that read ‘Happy 55th Birthday Dear Boss.'” They reportedly told the American that it was for someone who “is a leader here and our boss…our

J.M. Smucker Co. is recalling several shipments of dog food after an independent investigation found traces of pentobarbital, a euthanasia drug, in samples from a range of popular brands. The company announced on Thursday that it would withdraw shipments

According to the documents, which were filed on Wednesday and obtained by PEOPLE Friday, Justin Stiegemeyer, Presley’s current business manager who is responsible for “day-to-day finances and paying all of her bills,” disclosed that the 50-year-old had first learned of her debt while her old business manager Provident Financial Management was handling her finances. In the court documents, Stiegemeyer went on to claim that Presley owes almost $50K in credit card debt, although he added that she has been actively paying down the sum and has managed to pay off the debt on certain cards in full.

U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen set an Olympic record with six quad jumps in the men’s figure skating long program on Friday. Chen bounced back after a disappointing turn during the short program that left the skater in 17th place in the 2018 Winter

Warren Buffett's Inc. has taken a real shine to Inc. Berkshire boosted its holding of the iPhone maker to $28 billion at year-end, surpassing its stake in & Co., which was worth $27.8 billion on Dec. 31. Apple has continued to rally this year, increasing the value of Berkshire's stake to $28.6 billion based on Thursday's closing price.

Donald Trump has insisted for more than a year that Russians didn’t try to get him elected. Special Counsel Robert Mueller put an end to those claims on Friday, declaring definitively that they did. A federal grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and a so-called “troll farm” in St. Petersburg on Friday for a broad campaign to sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

A federal judge in Delaware has overturned a jury's verdict requiring Gilead Sciences Inc to pay a record $2.54 billion because its hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni infringed a patent held by rival Merck & Co Inc. The verdict had been the largest ever in a U.S. patent case but U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday ruled Merck's patent was invalid. Gilead in a statement on Saturday said it always believed the patent was invalid and was pleased the judge confirmed that opinion. The December 2016 verdict followed a trial in which jurors found that Merck's patent on hepatitis C treatments, which it acquired in 2014 when it bought Idenix Pharmaceuticals, was valid.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares fell a bit after the company reported its first-quarter earnings. In fact, a recent report from BMO Capital Markets found that the average Starbucks location has 3.6 other Starbucks cafes within a one-mile radius. Starbucks plans to do that as it rolls out its premium brand.

Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, ran an online service called Auction Essistance, through which he bought and sold bank account numbers that would help users circumvent security measures of digital payment companies. Pinedo transferred, possessed and used the identities of other people in connection with unlawful activity, according to a statement of the offense. It said he has no criminal history and that he agrees to cooperate with Mueller's office.

Industrial names generally suffer from deep cyclicality which can affect companies operating in areas ranging from machinery to aerospace to construction. As such, the position a company has relative to the economic cycle drives its level of profitability

Friday, Feb. 16 marks the first day of the annual Chinese New Year celebrations, initiating the year of the dog and kicking off a 15-day holiday that will be honored by billions of people around the world. Chinese New Year is one of the most prominent festivals in the world, and it typically witnesses the largest annual mass migrations of people on earth.

Wynn, who denied the accusations, remains Wynn Resorts' largest shareholder and owns about 12 percent of the company. Casino mogul Wynn's current healthcare coverage would be terminated at the end of this year, the casino company said in a regulatory filing, adding that his personal residence's lease at Wynn Las Vegas will terminate by June this year. Last week, Wynn Resorts gave the top job to company veteran Matt Maddox.

The influenza outbreak that’s killed thousands of Americans and wreaked havoc on the lives of many more seems to have passed its peak and started a slow retreat. While it’s a good sign that flu activity is starting to level off, it’s a far cry from the precipitous drop in doctor visits typically seen when a busy season starts to come to a close. The CDC’s national map of influenza activity offers some hope.

Walmart (WMT) is looking to purchase more than 40% of Amazon’s India rival Flipkart, according to Reuters. The deal would give Walmart some much needed muscle in India, where Amazon is already investing $5B into ventures like online grocery delivery. Amazon (AMZN) is partnering up with Bank of America (BAC) for business lending.

Japanese figure skater and Winnie the Pooh enthusiast Yuzuru Hanyu not only won the men’s short program at the 2018 Winter Olympics on Thursday, but thanks to his bromance with Spain’s Javier Fernández, won the Internet’s heart as well. Hanyu and Fernández have been competing against each other for years, but off the ice, their friendship appears to have only grown stronger. “With ‘Yuzu,’ we are everything, we are friends, we are teammates, at some point we have to be rivals,” Fernández told Reuters in 2015.

With earnings season well under way, lots of companies are announcing dividend increases. If you're looking for companies with strong dividend growth, here are three tech stocks to consider.
Intel, Cisco, and Corning all announced double-digit increases

Investors seem to despise pipeline giants Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), Enbridge (NYSE: ENB), and Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE: PAA) these days given that all three are down more than 20% over the past year. Enbridge's stock has lost about 20% of its value over the past year.

Feb. 16, 2018 at 4:26 PM The investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election took a significant step forward Friday, with the indictment of 13 Russian nationals and and three Russian organizations along with the announcement of a guilty plea from a California man for identity fraud. The indictment and guilty plea are important because they are the first charges related to Russian attempts to sabotage the election. (The other indictment and pleas in the Mueller investigation have been in relation to other criminal activities.) The election interference is an activity long denounced by the U.S. intelligence community but routinely called into question

On Wednesday after the close, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) reported earnings. Despite a plethora of good news, AMAT stock actually sold off in early Thursday trading. Fiscal first-quarter earnings per share of $1.06 came in 8 cents per share ahead of expectations.

Dan Caplinger (Berkshire Hathaway): There aren't many stocks I have so much confidence in that I'd hold for half a century, and Berkshire Hathaway isn't the most obvious choice to be one of them. As morbid as the subject may be, the odds are just about nil that 87-year-old Warren Buffett will live to his 137th birthday, and vice chairman Charlie Munger is even older than Buffett is.